Location: 220 Pioneer Street
Early residents Roy and Clara Schroeder’s confectionary catered to one of everyone’s favorite frivolities: sweets! This building, constructed in 1926 and designed by Vancouver’s Blaine Ackley, cost $5,000 to complete (which amounts to just over $85,000 in 2022). The front was dedicated to the store and featured a soft drink counter, five booths and stock shelves. The back of the building was designed as a 24-foot living space complete with a kitchen, dining room, bedroom and bathroom, plus an 8x25-foot porch.
In the 1930s, Schroeder was the manager of 4th of July events held in the city by the American Legion. A local resident interviewed in 2013 recalled that “It was never really fancy, but it was a nice place to go. Roy’s daughter could usually be heard in the back of the shop practicing her violin, and her mother was usually around since Roy had a main job as a shingle-weaver at a nearby mill.” In 1956, concerns over teens playing the shop’s pinball machine, considered gambling at the time, led a judge to approach the city council with concerns over potential youthful shenanigans.
In 2013, contractors renovating the decades-old confectionary store unearthed an odd block of concrete buried underneath the floor. When opening the slab, workers discovered a time capsule filed with tokens of Ridgefield’s past, such as a photo of Jean Schroeder, daughter of the original Sweet Shop owners, local newspapers from 1926, and other historic treasures. These were framed and can be found next door at City Hall, 230 Pioneer Street.
George W. Buker, the original contractor, cooked up the idea to put a time capsule beneath the brick chimney during construction in the mid-1920s. The Reflector cheered Buker’s “unique” idea, asserting it would be “hailed as a clever and beneficial stunt” when discovered. Carrying on the legacy of George Buker and the Schroeder family, a new time capsule was buried for future Ridgefielders to discover.
